Varieties of Police Behavior: The Management of Law and Order in Eight Communities (Joint Center for Urban Studies Publicati)

The patrolman has the most difficult, complex, and least understood task in the police department. Much less is known of him than of his better publicized colleague, the detective. In this important and timely book, James Q. Wilson describes the patrolman and the problems he faces that arise out of constraints imposed by law, politics, public opinion, and the expectations of superiors. The study considers how the uniformed officer in eight communities deals with such common offenses as assault, theft, drunkenness, vice, traffic, and disorderly conduct. Six of the communities are in New York State: Albany, Amsterdam, Brighton, Nassau County, Newburgh, and Syracuse. The others are Highland Park, Illinois, and Oakland, California. Enforcing laws dealing with common offenses is especially difficult because it raises the question of administrative discretion. Murder, in the eyes of the police, is unambiguously wrong, and murderers are accordingly arrested; but in cases such as street-corner scuffles or speeding motorists, the patrolman must decide whether to intervene (should the scuffle be stopped? should the motorist be pulled over?) and, if he does, just how to intervene (by arrest? a warning? an interrogation?). In most large organizations, the lowest-ranking members perform the more routinized tasks and the means of accomplishing these tasks are decided by superiors, but in a police department the lowest-ranking officer--the patrolman--is almost solely responsible for enforcing those laws which are the least precise, the most ambiguous. Three ways or "styles" of policing--the watchman, the legalistic, and the service styles--are analyzed and their relation to local politics is explored. In the final chapter, Mr. Wilson discusses if and how the patrolman's behavior can be changed and examines some current proposals for reorganizing police departments. He observes that the ability of the patrolman to do his job well may determine our success in managing social conflict and our prospects for maintaining a proper balance between liberty and order. Contents ......Page 16 ONE INTRODUCTION......Page 20 TWO THE PATROLMAN......Page 35 The Maintenance of Order......Page 36 Justice as a Constraint......Page 53 Some Organizational Consequences......Page 67 THREE THE POLICE ADMINISTRATOR......Page 76 Managing Discretion......Page 83 Critical Events......Page 97 The Determinants of Discretion......Page 102 The Eight Communities......Page 108 The Uses of Discretion......Page 114 FIVE THE WATCHMAN STYLE......Page 159 The Organizational Context......Page 170 Some Consequences......Page 176 SIX THE LEGALISTIC STYLE......Page 191 The Organizational Context......Page 202 Some Consequences......Page 207 SEVEN THE SERVICE STYLE......Page 219 The Organizational Context......Page 221 Some Consequences......Page 234 EIGHT POLITICS AND THE POLICE......Page 246 Politics and the Watchman Style......Page 255 Politics and the Service Style......Page 268 Politics and the Legalistic Style......Page 276 Some Findings from National Data......Page 290 NINE CONCLUSIONS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS......Page 297 Index ......Page 320 In his new preface, Wilson reviews changes in police styles during the past decade, and explains the reasons for these changes. Varieties of Police Behavior remains unsurpassed in delineating the role of the patrolman and the problems he faces due to constraints imposed by law, politics, public opinion, and the expectations of superiors.